Tag: Scifi

Posted on

Book Review: Rogue Ragtime by K.Alexis

Rogue Ragtime

Rogue Ragtime by K.Alexis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In the interests of being transparent, I’d like to note that I know the author personally. To the best of my intention, my review of his work has not been influenced by this and is based on my honest opinion.

Rogue Ragtime by K. Alexis follows a small band of thieves, cursed to steal unimportant items, while trying to complete a collection of a set of novels in a world where books are banned.

The Cover: I really like this cover, it is colourful and has a kind of comic book/Manga feel to it. The image fits well with the story for me and it has a good title font with colours that stand out well against the background.

The Good Stuff: I love the fight scenes within this story, they are done well, there are some formidable foes, and they move smoothly through the action. In fact, as a whole, the story moves smoothly and is well written. The author shows a strong voice throughout this novel and has created a diverse and multi-cultured world with some great characters – Characters with their own distinctive personalities and abilities.

The Bad Stuff: There are some info dumps on the character descriptions which I feel could have been fed into the story more subtly. There is also an ‘instant message conversation’ snippet at the beginning of each chapter. While it is a nice quirky idea, I found it distracting and it didn’t really add anything to the story for me. I also got a little confused with everything that was going on in the story at times. There is also a lot of opinion within the text, which while I do not disagree with it, it is not subtle and I found it quite imposing at times.

Overall, I enjoyed the characters and the fight scenes, but the story is a bit “out there” and not something I would normally read. Having said that, I would love to watch this as a movie, I think I would thoroughly enjoy it. I’m giving this a mind boggling 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks with the added comment that I do not feel I am the target audience for this book.

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here. You can also find his titles available in libraries.

If you liked this post please share it with your friends on social media.

Posted on

Book Review – The Vagrant by Peter Newman.

The Vagrant (The Vagrant, #1)

The Vagrant by Peter Newman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Vagrant by Peter Newman is a dystopian novel with sci fi and fantasy elements. It follows the story of a mute protagonist as he journeys across the wastelands with a goat and a baby (at least for the duration of my read).

The Cover: I love the cover to this book. It has great artwork and it tells me straight away that this is a fantasy novel. I even get the feeling it is set in a dystopian world and picture is a great representation of the main character.

The Good Stuff: The story was interesting, I would like to know how it unfolds – just not enough to push me through author’s prose. I liked the wasteland, the author has built a believable world, ravished by ‘demons’, where life fights to survive among the new hosts. The protagonist, while he did not talk up to the point where I stopped reading, is interesting. I find I want to know more of his story, where he came from and why he is there. I have some ideas based on the story so far, but nothing was given away by the author to the point I read up to, merely hinted at.

The bad stuff: I really didn’t like the author’s style of writing. There were lots of short sentences, to the point where the story was confusing or didn’t make sense to me in places. I didn’t manage to finish this book, I loaned it from my local library, struggled through to page 169 and when the 3rd renewal came up, figured if I haven’t gotten into the book by now, it was not worth the trouble renewing again.

I think that if you are okay with the author’s writing style, you will enjoy this book. The story is interesting, the world is believable and there is variety in the characters. Personally, I couldn’t get past the author’s style. I don’t think this was a bad book, just not a book for me. I’m only giving it 2 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

amazon.com
amazon.com.au
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

If you liked this post why not share it on social media?

Posted on

Book Review – The Ares Weapon by D.M. Pruden.

The Ares Weapon

The Ares Weapon by D.M. Pruden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Ares Weapon by D.M. Pruden is a novella sized, Indie Sci-Fi/thriller. Dr Melanie Destin has a dream to start a new life on Mars. She is unwittingly coaxed into taking on a new job and soon finds out that not all is what it’s meant to be.

The Cover: The cover isn’t the best I’ve seen, it doesn’t scream out pick me up, but it isn’t bad and it’s one I would take a second look when browsing in a store. It tweaks my interest, does a good job conveying they genre and gives you a feel for what the story is going to be about.

The Good Stuff: Okay, I’m going to have a little rant above about the bad stuff later, but first let’s take a look at the positives of this book. Putting aside all the issues below, I actually enjoyed the story and found it easy to read. I think the author has a good concept of sentence and paragraph length. There are well constructed sentences (outside of those that have lost a word or have repeated the same word twice) and the prose runs smoothly. There is a good balance of description, narrative and dialogue and there’s also some good lines in the story, like ‘The smell of unwashed bodies hung in the poor airflow of the hundred-year-old tram car.’ There were little touches in this story that brought it to life for me, things like water rations running out in the shower and having to pay a premium for five more minutes. There has also been a lot of work put into the plot, and while I questioned some of the turns, I accepted them freely enough because I was enjoying the story and wanted to see how things worked out. The characters are well formed and there is both a strong protagonist and a ruthless antagonist, who both play key parts in the story and help to develop the plot. Another thing to note is that while I’m not a fan of first person, apart from one paragraph that annoyed me, it was done very well.

The Bad Stuff: This book had a lot of niggling issues for me. The content could do with a copy edit/proof read as there are several missing conjunctive words, double conjunctive words (i.e. the the) and at least one spelling mistake throughout the book (I know this seems petty, and normally I would expect that, but combined with the other issues it irked me).

There are also quite a few Latin words used in the story, and while I understand what the author was trying to achieve, I found this distracting. A bigger issue in my opinion, is that chapters jump from third person to first person narrative and back. I am not a fan of first person and in one particular paragraph it seemed like every sentence started with ‘I’. There was also some head hopping, thoughts shown in italics in some places, yet plain text in others, and a mirror scene used to describe the protagonist.

I found some issues with the logic in the story too – The whole squatter thing didn’t make sense to me. Squatters rarely look after a squat house and it is even rarer that they leave of their own accord. Besides, it would make more sense to rent your apartment out if you knew you would be away for an extended period, especially if you are saving for your dream. As a reader I would also have been more sympathetic to the protagonist if she had not so easily (and so willingly) reverted to her old life, but rather had been set up to make it look like she had done so.

I don’t normally read Sci-Fi or Thrillers, but on the whole this is a good, enjoyable read. I feel that if the author spends a little time fixing up some of the issues and releasing a version 2, it could end up as a great book. I’m giving this one 3 out of 5 golden bookmarks.

Want to know if you agree with my review? Grab your own copy from these links:

amazon.com
amazon.com.au
Kobo

Allan Walsh writes Fantasy and Horror. If you’re looking for something new to read in these genres, why not check out his books here.

If you liked this post why not share it on social media?

Posted on

New Year, New Freebies.

Hello Readers,

With the New Year celebrations over, it is time to look forward to the year ahead. I am still looking for a new job, I’ve signed up to a double diploma, and I have completed a volunteer English tutor course and will be taking on my first student in the near future. Even with these commitments I plan to achieve more as an author this year, than I did in 2018. This year I hope to build a larger following, obtain more reviews on my books, finish some of my stories that have been neglected for a while, and much more.

Part of my plan to help build my following involves a little author collaboration and a giveaway. It’s a win/win situation! Readers get to try new authors without forking out for their books, and authors may pick up a new fan or 2.  So what better way to start the new year than by teaming up with another author for a free offer. Well that’s just what I have done. I’ve teamed up with author Carol James Marshall.

Carol James Marshall is a California native that now resides in Warner Robins, Georgia with her husband, two boys, and a couple of dogs that are spoiled by all. Marshall’s books are light science fiction with a splash of horror and a decent douse of creepy.  Her short stories are a bit lighter, being more whimsical, but still pack a mysterious yet comical punch. When Carol is not writing she loves audiobooks, reading, classic science fiction and horror films.

To grab a free copy of Carol’s book Starburst just click on the image below:

FB Jan Freebie

STARBURST:

When everything you know is a lie… Will you seek the truth?

Lisa, our anti-hero, only wants to follow orders from her mysterious leader, Superior Mother, then get back to life in The Grey. When she is sent on her first mission among the humans, Lisa realizes she is more human than Superior Mother led her to believe. In her first mission for the Women of the Grey, Lisa begins to not only challenge her orders from Superior Mother but everything she has ever known. Defiant and on a quest for the truth, Lisa will follow orders no more while she creates a path of her own. If you love books with strong female characters that are both heroes and villains, Starburst is a read just for you.
The Women of the Grey is a science fiction and horror trilogy that dives into alien isolation tangled into a secret society. Read Starburst book 1 today to start the journey into the dark and disturbing world of The Grey.

For those of you that do not know me, I am a writer and artist, born in sun-scorched Australia and raised in the grungy suburbs of West London. I’m a keen martial arts fan, lover of fantasy, and a movie buff. I grew up watching movies like ‘Drunken Master’ and ‘Snake in the Eagles Shadow’. My favourite author is Joe Abercrombie and I love the graphic novels of Wendy and Richard Pini. So you will find I’ve been influenced by the likes of Joe, Wendy, Richard and cult Asian film directors such as Jacki Chan and Stephen Chow. I currently reside in Brisbane, where I enjoy creating new worlds through my writing.

To grab a free copy of my book Darkness In Shadows just click on the image below:

FB - DIS

DARKNESS IN SHADOWS:

Are you afraid of the dark? You should be!

Corporal Jackson’s been assigned a new post on a top-secret project and keeping him in the dark might just kill him. It’s hard to hide things from the Russians though. They know about the machine and they want one… but some secrets should stay hidden.

Darkness in Shadows is a sci-fi horror by Allan Walsh. If you like heart-thumping short stories, hair-raising concepts, and scary twists on reality, this monstrous tale will have you jumping at shadows.

Wrap your fingers around a copy today!

Happy Reading!

AW